National Security Minister Stuart Young Monday said that Trinidad and Tobago would allow at least 60 of its national stranded in Suriname to return home, even as it maintained that the borders of the twin-island republic would continue to remain closed until May 15.
Speaking at the daily Ministry of Health news conference on the coronavirus (COVID-19), Young said that he had been in communication with lawyers representing 33 of those nationals in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country and had also been approached by a company in Trinidad requesting assistance repatriating more than 30 of its employees.
Young said that in the next 24 hours, he expects to have a better picture as to the number of citizens stranded in Suriname, who will be able to make their way home “at their own expense”.
“When they get to Trinidad and Tobago at their own accord, they will, as you have seen happen with the 33 nationals who returned from Barbados, they will be subject to the Chief Medical Officer and his professional staff and they will be quarantine.
“There will be no doubt about that,” Young said, noting that unlike the nationals who were stranded in Barbados, those in Suriname are not one particular group.
He told reporters that while five chartered aircraft had been allowed to land over the weekend, as well as Port of Spain allowing the United States military to pick up US nationals, this had been done under strict supervision, with no one being allowed to disembark and remain in Trinidad.
He also indicated that over the weekend, law enforcement officials had detained two Trinidad and Tobago nationals who had travelled to Venezuela illegally and confiscated several goods.
“We have been using our technologies as well as our hard personnel, “ he said, adding that during the early hours of Monday “we picked up two of three Trinidad and Tobago nationals who had crossed the border, went to Venezuela, and coming back we caught them with huge amounts of fish and shrimp in complete contravention of not only the COVID regulations but also the Customs Act.
Young said last week Venezuelan nationals were also detained by law enforcement authorities and handed over to their counterparts in Caracas.
He also took the opportunity to reiterate Port of Spain’s position regarding its relationship with Barbados, saying that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had made it clear “we have absolutely no issues with Barbados.
“I certainly have no issue with anyone in Barbados, at the Barbados government level I have not spoken to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I can say very openly here I have never spoken to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Barbados over this issue.
“I was dealing with the Prime Minister of Barbados [Mia Mottley] and the Attorney General [Dale Marshall] directly and I have absolutely no issues with the government of Barbados. And you will recall last week …when I read a certain letter from us to a CARICOM country, I did not call the name of any such country, but certainly I could put on record here that I have absolutely no issues with the government of Barbados, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” Young said.
Bridgetown last Friday issued a statement in which it said that it was “deeply disturbed” by a jab made by Young who suggested the Mottley administration failed to respect the twin-island republic’s border policies in its handling of the situation involving 33 Trinidadians who were stranded there for a month.
The Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Ministry described Young’s comments as “regrettable”, as it stressed that Barbados had gone through all the appropriate channels to get the group home.
They returned to Trinidad and Tobago last Wednesday after testing negative for COVID-19.
